Distillery Tour

[Bushman]

It has been years since I have been on a distillery tasting but went to one last Saturday. I am on my boat cruising the San Juan Islands of Washington and moored on Orcas Island. Happened to be visiting the Saturday market and saw a building with a sign Distillery Tasting Room. I went in and thought $15.00 for 4 small tastes was a bit high but went for it anyway. It’s a small distillery and they have a 250 gallon Alembic Pot Still that they heat with an open flame. The four tastes included: Gin, Apple Brandy, Whiskey, and Cask strength Whiskey. I especially liked the Gin, and both whiskeys, the Apple Brandy did not jump out at me. The whiskey had been aged for 4 years.
I really don’t know how they can make it as their Gin was $90 a bottle and Whiskey around $154. I understand that supplies are more expensive on the island and a small still cost more to run and maybe I have been out of the buying market for some time but I would think those are the prices you might see at a bottle aged for 20 years.

[bilgriss]

Interesting. Looks like their whiskeys are all malt. Web page shows they've won several awards consistently. Your feedback confirms they're doing something right.

I know what you mean about pricing. Seems like a number of small, craft distilleries open and their strategy is to price as if they have an established and desired product on day 1, rather than building to it over time. I guess for some it's working. But I also predict we're near the inflection point that industries go through where lots of small businesses get absorbed by larger ones and others then go away because they can't compete. We're definitely seeing that in the craft beer industry now, and have been for some time.

[zach]

I visited three distilleries at different ports along an Alaskan cruise back in 2021. The business plan common to these out of the way places was to re-distill neutral and sell white and flavored products to keep the prices lower. Once you factor in materials, barrels, labor, rent, insurances, taxes, in a place like Orcas island, the price doesn't surprise me.